Brooklyn Museum set to open reinstallation of American art, as part of its bicentennial

August 14, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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EASTERN PARKWAY — AS THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM MARKS ITS BICENTENNIAL this year, it is preparing to open the complete reinstallation of American art galleries this October. Titled “Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art,” and opening on Friday, Oct. 4, the reinstallation experiments boldly with representation and furthers the Museum’s commitment to creating a more inclusive history of art. This collection exhibit will bring together over 400 extraordinary artworks spanning 2,000 years, including over 120 never-before-exhibited works.

As part of the Museum’s reinterpretation of its historic collections, “Toward Joy” will showcase Black feminist approaches to inclusive space-making. The collection will be installed across eight galleries on the Museum’s fifth floor, each dedicated to a unique curatorial framework that brings together art spanning time, culture, and media from across North, Central and South America. The experience will begin in the elevator lobby, where Jannah and Kiyanna Handy of Brooklyn’s own BLK MKT Vintage have been tapped for the interior design. The installation’s main curator is Stephanie Sparling Williams, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art. She has been working alongside a team of seven curators across the departments of American Art, Arts of the Americas and Decorative Arts and Design.

Inspired by nineteenth- and twentieth-century Black American spirituals, the first framework, “Trouble the Water,” will explore the links between water and notions of freedom, life and spirituality.

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